Category Archives: Thoughts

What do you say when you get a 1.25% annual return on your savings account? You’re excited, of course! But have you ever thought about the idea of compounding personal improvement?

Look at it this way. Say that you improve yourself 1% each week for a year. Over the course of a year, that’s 52% just by adding the weekly “interest.”

But wait- there’s more! Do you remember the magic of compounding interest? It’s more than 52%! Not only do you gain the 1% each week, but you also gain improvements on those improvements as time goes on. It’s easy to improve yourself 1% each week. Do you watch TV? How do you use the commercial time? Instead of watching them, find something productive to do during that time. Clip some coupons. Fold the laundry. You get the idea.

Speaking of TV, have you ever considered taking that idea further? What if you reduced it? What could you accomplish during that saved time? What about your commute to work? Instead of listening to a talk show about celebrity gossip, is there something else you could be listening to? Try an educational CD or MP3 download to attend what the late Zig Ziglar called Automobile University. Now that’s a great way to improve your time management! You can add hours of learning to your life without an additional time commitment since you’re replacing rather than adding an activity.

When you make a mistake, these people are never far away. Lurking behind the corner, they are quick to criticize and slow to congratulate. It is almost as if they are only capable of seeing the negative in everything. Even if they unintentionally run across something good, they manage to twist it into a negative. They drain the joy out of everything.

Their negativity applies to your finances and life balance. Instead of encouraging, they tell you what you can’t do. You can never pay off your home. You can never send your kids to college. You can never eliminate your credit card debt. You will never have enough time. Your goals are too idealistic. They say these are facts of life we must all accept. They tell you that the glass is half empty, and it’s ugly.

Here’s the good news- they’re wrong! Since they’re wrong, you don’t have to listen to them. Avoid their negativity. Exposing yourself to it only undermines your ability to get out of debt and into the life you want. Don’t believe the lies. You can pay off your home. You can send your kids to college. You can reach all of these goals!

Also, don’t just avoid the toxic people. Replace them with positive people! These people can encourage you as you pursue your goals and strive to live debt free. Listen to people who encourage you. They will help you as you attain your goals, and they will be there to celebrate your victories with you.

Kids make mistakes. This is a commonly accepted fact of life. While learning to ride a bike, they fall and scrape a knee. Proudly displaying a flower picked from mom’s prize garden, they rush into the house. Naturally, the trail of mud leads straight across the new, white carpet.

When these things happen, what should parents do? Should they never forget the incident, telling their child to give up and never try again? Of course not! They should never allow their children to be locked into the past by mistakes. Instead, they should encourage them to learn from the mistake and move on.

As an adult, you are faced with a similar question. What will you do about your financial mistakes? Will you carry them with you, refusing to ever move on? Will you give up? Or will you learn to leave the past behind you so you can move on in your life? Remaining trapped in pain and failure accomplishes nothing; you must learn to let go of the past if you are to succeed in your finances in the future.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean you entirely forget your past. Instead, you acknowledge that it happened. It is over. It no longer controls you. Rather than being trapped by it, you are free to chase your dreams and goals.

You cannot improve your financial future without first accepting the past. Learn from it, and move on. The past is for teaching, not for stopping.

Not Settling For Less

Contrary to popular belief, contentment doesn’t mean settling for less. It does not mean that you ignore what you really want, insisting that what you have now is enough. In reality, contentment may actually mean settling for more. It is settling for more of what is important to you- settling for more time with your family and more time pursuing your goals and dreams.

Spend Less Time on the Unimportant

It may mean settling for less time spent on the unimportant- less time chasing material items that will mean nothing to you and have no value years from now. Remember the saying, “The one with the most toys at the end of life wins?” Sounds like that person should have settled for spending more time and energy on the important rather than on accumulation.

Poor versus Broke.

After a hurricane Katrina, my daughter and I traveled to the area affected by it to assist in the rebuilding. My job was to install plumbing in the new homes that were being built in one of the poorer areas.

Broke

While there, I had the pleasure of meeting a retired gentlemen who lived across the street from where I was working. He was in his late 80’s, and he brought over some sodas for us to drink as we worked. He told us he appreciated the work we were doing in his neighborhood. He informed us that the water had been about 4 feet deep in his home and truck. He had cleaned up his place himself and was currently working on his truck so he could get it running again (his truck was worth about $200).

He said that he was living on a $600 per month income and that the storm had set him back a little financially, but he felt he had bounced back fairly quickly. He was broke, but not poor.

Poor

Beside him sat a house that still had all of the flood residue in the yard. On the porch sat three teenage boys who lived there, each listening to his MP3 player. They motioned for me to come over to where they were sitting, so I did.

When I got there, they asked if I knew when the work crew was coming to their house to clean their yard. I stood there in disbelief. Here were three able-bodied young men who had the physical ability to take care of their own situation but were waiting on volunteers- volunteers their own age who were paying to come from other states to help. It then occurred to me that these young men had been raised to believe that they were poor and that they could not do anything about it.

Which are You?

So as you look at your own finances, are you broke or poor? Broke is temporary . . . just a bump in the road. Or are you poor, thinking that you have no control over and no input into your situation? The two definitions I’m using have nothing to do with money; they have to do with people’s attitudes and perceptions of their situations.

You have a choice, and the choice is yours.
Bryan Cooper
Financial Life Coach

Identity Theft

People often talk about identity theft, the kind where someone else steals your identity. We’ve all seen commercials where an identity thief steals someone’s credit card number to gain rights and privileges that belong to another person. Identity theft is becoming a major problem in our society.

Two Kinds of Identity Theft

While people often talk about that type of identity theft, it isn’t the only kind. Today, I want to talk about the other kind- the one no one talks about. This type of identity theft occurs when either your actions or your lack of actions steals your true identity. Because of how you’re living, you are unable to follow your goals, values, and dreams. They have been stolen from you through your own actions.

For example, being overloaded with debt steals your identity. The stress it creates prevents you from being the real you. Because you’re using most of your resources to repay your debt, you are prevented from doing what is most important to you. You are trapped by your debt, forced to live within its confines.

Only You Can Get Your Identity Back

Since this type of identity theft is created by you, you have the power to free yourself. Regain your identity. Learn how to make changes by reading a book, taking a class, or finding someone who can help you.

Are you going to continue allowing YOUR choices to steal your TRUE identity?

Slow down so you can go faster. So many times, we go ninety miles an hour all day long only to find we either didn’t really get anything done or we worked on the wrong things. Slow down, get rested, and prioritize what you need to do. An important part of prioritization is removing things from your list. Learn to say no. You may have items on your list that are unimportant, put there by someone else, or will take you in a completely different direction then you want to go.

So how do you change this?

Step One

Stop. Take a look at what all you have going on.

Step Two

Determine what is important to you.

Step Three

Get rested. You will not be efficient or effective if you are worn out.

Step Four

Prioritize. Take what you determined is important to you and make it a priority.

Step Five

Eliminate. Take another look at everything you are doing. Eliminate anything that is unimportant or distracting.

Now you can start back up and take action on the most important items that will lead you in the direction you want to go.